Irish Examiner view: Power of local democracy is wilting across Ireland

The balance of power is out of kilter because our local authorities do not have the income to deliver imaginative, creative local government

Cork County Council refused to give public representatives the cost of claims lodged against it over what were described as defective footpaths or roads. Picture: Denis Minihane

The idea of local democracy is increasingly nebulous; it is an aspiration made almost unachievable by the concentration of power.

OECD figures confirm this regression.